When Jason Flores moves to the Yukon for a new job, he’s not sure what to expect. His son Micah seems enchanted by the wildlife, but his recent fear of the dark means that the eighteen-hour nights in the winter will be a difficult adjustment. When Jason takes Micah to the local museum’s interactive lecture series on the gold rush, it turns out to be one of the best decisions he’s ever made.

Pete Odjick, a tattooed First Nations and Inuit man, dresses up for the weekly lectures as Skookum Jim, one of the first prospectors to find gold. He takes an immediate interest in Micah and an even bigger interest in Jason.

As their flirtation grows into something more serious, Jason’s job at a big name oil company and Pete’s volunteer work with an environmental group become a point of contention. Can they come to an understanding and give Micah a family again? Or will the drastic differences between them tear them apart? As the winter nights grow longer, Pete and Jason worry their love won’t be enough to chase the darkness away.

I thought this was a cute novella. Really well written, very detailed, and super cool facts. I liked both mc’s. I liked the setting as well. I did feel like Alaska was the glue that held the story together. I liked how both mc’s passions and jobs ended up intertwining. I think the author did a great job with researching for each guy’s cause and the historic facts that are featured in the museum. I thought the Micah was wonderful as well. He was such a sweet little boy, and he really felled hard for Pete.

Pete and Jason were great together. I think they each brought out certain needs and wants from one another. Like most books, a little bit of miscommunication causes them to suddenly split. Don’t worry it wasn’t petty nonsense. The split between the two definitely showed how each guy came to the realization that they needed each other more then they thought. I think Gideon was able to show how being different in causes as well as anything else in life can be a burden on a relationship. The goal is to compromise and talk things through. This is where Gideon excelled at in this story. Add on the bonus of Jason being a newly single father and moving to another country, I think he did great in choosing Pete and being able to think of Pete’s feelings and causes as well.

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good story. It was very good for the length that it was. I am really liking these World of Love stories. Their short and very contemporary. I recommend this book big time. I am looking forward to more from Francis Gideon.

About Francis Gideon

Francis Gideon is a writer of m/m romance, but he also dabbles in mystery, fantasy, historical, and paranormal fiction. He likes to stay up late, drink too much coffee, and read too many comic books. He credits music, especially the artists Patti Smith, Frank Iero, Gerard Way, Florence + the Machine, and The Pixies as his main sources of inspiration, but the list grows every day. Since age twelve, he’s been trying to figure out what genre is best suited for a strange, quiet kid like him and so far, he’s happy to be where he’s ended up.

When not writing fiction, Francis teaches college English classes while he studies for his PhD. He has published several nonfiction and critical articles on everything from the Canadian poet and artist P.K. Page, transgender identity in the YouTube community, using fanfiction as a teaching tool, and character deaths in the TV show Hannibal. Those are all under different his “real” name, though. He writes his novels using his middle name, Francis, so that his students don’t Google him and ask too many questions.

Both Francis and his partner live in Canada, where they often disagree about TV shows and make really bad puns. To talk more about books, bad horror movies, LGBT poetry, or anything else, please drop him a line!